Maestro Pinchas Steinberg has been elected to succeed Fabio Luisi as the new music director of the Orchestre de la Suisse Romande.

He will not take up the position until September 1st, 2002. But he will become artistic director on January 1st, 2001, to prepare the 2002/2003 and 2003/2004 seasons.

Pinchas Steinberg was born in 1945 in Israel, and studied music there and later in the US under Joseph Gingold and Jascha Heifetz. He studied composition at the Roosevelt University in Chicago and also in Berlin.

His conducting career began in 1974 with the Berlin Radio Symphony Orchestra and he has since worked with many of Europe's most prestigious orchestras. From 1989 to 1996 he was music director of the Australian Radio Symphony Orchestra.

Pinchas Steinberg devotes much time to opera and is regularly invited to opera houses all around the world. He conducted Nabucco in 1995 for the opening of the season at the Paris Bastille Opera. During the 1999/2000 season he conducted Aida to great acclaim at the Grand Theatre in Geneva.

Future engagements include work with the Munich Philharmonic, the London Symphony Orchestra and the Paris National Opera, as well as invitations from the Dallas Symphony and Cleveland Orchestra.

Pinchas Steinberg's discography includes Wagner's Flying Dutchman, Catalani's La Wally and Massenet's Cherubin. The Massenet recording features Frederica von Stade, Samuel Ramey, June Anderson and Dawn Upshaw and received the Grand Prix du Disque, the Diapason d'Or, the German Music Critics' Award and the Cecilia Award.

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